Sun Microsystems

Published 7 May 2024
Read the keynote address prepared for delivery by Privacy Commissioner Carly Kind for the Office of the Information Commissioner Queensland Privacy Awareness Week launch event on Tuesday 7 May 2024.

Introduction

• This shaped fundamentally how I came to understand abuses of state power and the importance of human rights law.
• Over time, I came to understand that the right to privacy is a key means by which power is mediated, limited and expressed.
• Infringements into privacy were one way in which power was exercised over individual journalists, activists and advocates.

Privacy is about power

• Notions of power cut in every direction in the digital ecosystem – the power wielded by tech monopolies and duopolies; the power concealed in political microtargeting and misinformation campaigns; the lack of power and agency consumers feel when they’re using digital technologies.
• The result is that today we see increasingly high levels of interest in and value placed on personal and data privacy.
• ‘You have zero privacy anyway’, said Scott McNeally, ‘Get over it.’ In the same year, Pew Research surveys showed that only 16% of online users were worried about privacy.
• If we compare that to today, a study also by Pew Research shows much, much higher levels both of privacy literacy and privacy concerns.
• Of course, there is even now draft privacy legislation under contemplation in the US, a jurisdiction historically adverse to federal privacy legislation, and it seems possible that the country will enact a privacy law before the end of the year.

Privacy Awareness Week

• It is against this backdrop, then, that we celebrate Privacy Awareness Week.
• This year, awareness of privacy is higher than ever before, arguably.
• We would also like to see government power up privacy Australia-wide by introducing the reforms to the Privacy Act that are so overdue.

Law reform

• It is an especially ideal time for businesses and government agencies covered by the Commonwealth Privacy Act and Queensland public sector agencies to power up existing privacy practices and culture, in advance of privacy law reform.
• The Australian Government responded in September, agreeing or agreeing in principle to all but 10 of the 116 proposals for reform.
• The federal Attorney-General shared last week that at the request of the Prime Minister, he will bring forward legislation in August to overhaul the Privacy Act.
• We see the positive obligation that personal information handling is fair and reasonable as a new keystone of the Australian privacy framework.

Privacy and technology

• In that role, I thought a lot about the role of data privacy regulation and regulators in grappling with new and emerging technologies, particularly AI.
• Online privacy and high privacy impact technologies, including practices involving the use of generative AI, facial recognition and the use of other biometric information, are also high on our regulatory priorities.
• The OAIC also has ongoing investigations into the use of facial recognition technology by Bunnings Group Limited and Kmart Australia Limited.
• We’ve also begun scoping what other new and emerging technologies might create privacy risks and harms that warrant our intervention.
• These all go to accountability – and there’s good reason to do them and show privacy leadership.

Data breaches and security

• Since the Commonwealth’s Notifiable Data Breaches scheme began in 2018, the OAIC has been notified of around 5,800 data breaches.
• There are high levels of public concern about data security as a result of the number and scale of recent breaches, and a strong appetite in the community for organisations and agencies to be held accountable.
• Mandatory reporting of breaches strengthens the protections afforded to everyone’s personal information and improves accountability and transparency in the way organisations respond to serious data breaches.
• Around 40% of data breaches notified to the OAIC have been the result of cyber security incidents.

Conclusion